Is it better to hire your own top-notch employee or outsource your task?

Is it better to hire your own top-notch employee or outsource your task?

The answer is not so simple.
If you have repetitive tasks that require exactly 40 hours per week to do, then hire an employee. But, what if you only need a few hours a day of specialized service? You might outsource the task to a company, or a highly skilled freelancer! In the end, it is really about finding someone who can get the job done they way you want it done.

Being in control of your new helper
Sure, you can hire your own employee. If you hire someone, it is easier to watch them if they are sitting next to you than if they are hundreds or thousands of miles away working for someone else. It is also easier to control an employee. You can say, “Do it my way or your’re fired!” Try saying that to someone at an outsourced company. They have to do what THEIR boss says, not what you say. You will be more in control (generally) if you hire your own person.

The outsourced company might be better at hiring
Anyone can hire someone to help them out. But, someone who specializes in hiring within a particular specialty might be better at hiring those types of people. On the other hand, the company might have mediocre taste in those that they hire, while you might be more discriminating. Additionally, it is easier to work with someone who you have a good personality match with. Someone who you hire is more likely to be compatible with you than an outsourced worker. Bad personal relationships almost always lead to substandard work with outsourced workers!

Having enough work?
If you run a small company, you sometimes don’t have enough work for a full-time employee. The other problem is that your full-time employee might not be able to do all of the tasks that you assign them, or might not be that good at half of the tasks. If you outsource a task, they do as many hours as you assign them. Freelancers are in the same boat. If you don’t mind having an employee sitting around twiddling their thumbs, or being paid overtime, you might be able to handle the work fluctuations. Or, if you have more than 40 hours of work per week to give to someone new, hire an employee and give the remainder to an outsourced company!

Letting it pile up?
If you have 25 hours a week of work for someone to do, and you let it pile up for a while, it might become 40 hours a week of work if you include playing catch up ball. On the other hand, if your new employee quits or gets fired quickly, you might quickly find yourself very painfully behind. The pile up strategy is very interesting, but has its pitfalls!

What should you do?
If you need to outsource a task, consider all of the options. Interview lots of outsourced companies, freelancers, and prospective employees. Try your best options after some analysis, and then commit to the best option and see what happens!

Tweets:
(1) If you have repetetive tasks that require exactly 40 hours per week to do, then hire an employee
(2) If you need specialized service, hire an outsourced company or a highly skilled freelancer!
(3) It’s easier to watch your help if if they are right next to you & NOT 5000 miles away in India!
(4) If you hire your own employee rather than outsourcing, you’re more likely to get personality compatibility!
(5) If you run a small company, you sometimes don’t have enough work for a full-time employee. Time to outsource!
(6) Bad personal relationships in the workplace almost always lead to substandard work!
(7) If you have 25 hrs/week of work to do and let it pile up for a few months, it becomes 40 hours playing catchup ball.